Dinosaurs of all shapes, sizes and appetites once roamed the Gobi Desert. Their fossilised bones
and eggs were first uncovered by American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s. Today, you can come face-to-skull with some of the best examples of Mongolian dinosaur fossils in the Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs.The centerpiece of the museum is a 4m-tall, 3-tonne, flesh eating Tyrannosaurus Bataar, a cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex. This particular specimen made international headlines in 2012 when it sold for over $1 million at an auction in Texas. The Mongolian government protested that the fossil had been illegally smuggled out of Mongolia and demanded its return. The legal battle ended when a US judge ruled in favor of Mongolia. The smaller dinosaur next to T-Bataar is a Saurolophus, with its distinctive cranial crest.
The museum also includes examples of Velociraptors, Protoceratops, and a nest of Oviraptor eggs.
The museum is housed inside the former Lenin Museum, constructed in 1974. A portion was renovated and opened in 2016 and the authorities dream of expanding it into a world-class institution of palaeontology and education. For now, it's still a bit limited in specimens, but there's another dinosaur museum located at Hunnu Mall (on the road to the airport).
